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While the struggling Tories meets in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. It’s not even clear if a viable path remains open. These are difficult days for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been so different if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that is important for people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. However the former leadership lacked the slightest idea on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into concrete action. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it discussed what the term truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility signified when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. This became our core mission, and its meaning is clear: social mobility is the approach by which we realize equal access – not through reducing prospects away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by providing chances to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, yet chances are not”, again was a intentional wording, reflecting the two halves of a social mobility strategy. First, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our economy. Therefore, schools and companies were key to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an mission about the societal structure of our country – investing in individual capabilities and providing access to chances.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda become under the Tory administration? A towns fund administered out of the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was launched nearly three years after the leadership change, which saw current strategies repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in funding, commerce, fiscal strategy, taxation and in place-making. Moreover, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a target for elected officials – although it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the primary source of social mobility, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is essential for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that effort and reward are linked; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For political leadership, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the future is important. Research by the academic institution at the university and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to students in those communities being up to nearly one-fifth more hopeful about their future than those in comparable communities without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people perceive their prospects.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its new leader election, in September 2022, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a organization that did that? This specific initiative is a clear case of what could have been a revolutionary administration strategy on social mobility, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the ruling party found out, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the biggest blunder any government can make. The public punished the administration for its ineffectiveness but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the mandate on social mobility and fair access has been taken up by a opposition party. The levelling up rhetoric has been discarded. Labour has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The party that is steadily supplanting the hapless Conservative party, the challenger, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in communities like the one I was raised in, in the region. It promises that an former economic strength can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must feel like a repetitive cycle. Same issue, different language. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

Whether the government and opposition want to escape the similar destiny, the respective organizations should understand the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that fair chance language is one thing, but actual achievement of improved opportunities is much harder. The UK’s chronically poor social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring in occupations with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can talk about fairer opportunities repeatedly. But where is the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? I see none. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not only for their party, but, more importantly, for a entire nation that has urgently needs equal access so urgently.